Chase leaves trail of wrecked cars, 3 injuries

Updated 8:49 pm, Tuesday, January 1, 2013

A chase through the streets of Saratoga Springs at the height of New Year's celebrations early Tuesday ended after six cars were damaged and three people were injured. The driver of the silver car, Aaron J. Elliott, is facing felony DWI and reckless endangerment charges, as well as more than a dozen other counts. (Saratoga Springs Police Department)

A chase through the streets of Saratoga Springs at the height of...

A chase through the streets of Saratoga Springs at the height of New Year's celebrations early Tuesday ended after six cars were damaged and three people were injured. The driver of the silver car, Aaron J. Elliott, is facing felony DWI and reckless endangerment charges, as well as more than a dozen other counts. (Saratoga Springs Police Department)

A chase through the streets of Saratoga Springs at the height of...

A chase through the streets of Saratoga Springs at the height of New Year's celebrations early Tuesday ended after six cars were damaged and three people were injured. The driver of the silver car, Aaron J. Elliott, is facing felony DWI and reckless endangerment charges, as well as more than a dozen other counts. (Saratoga Springs Police Department)

A chase through the streets of Saratoga Springs at the height of...

A chase through the streets of Saratoga Springs at the height of New Year's celebrations early Tuesday ended after six cars were damaged and three people were injured. The driver of the silver car, Aaron J. Elliott, is facing felony DWI and reckless endangerment charges, as well as more than a dozen other counts. (Saratoga Springs Police Department)

A chase through the streets of Saratoga Springs at the height of...

A chase through the streets of Saratoga Springs at the height of New Year's celebrations early Tuesday ended after six cars were damaged and three people were injured. The driver, Aaron J. Elliott (pictured), is facing felony DWI and reckless endangerment charges, as well as more than a dozen other counts. (Saratoga Springs Police Department)

At the height of New Year revelry Tuesday morning, an intoxicated Rensselaer County man barreled his Oldsmobile through downtown Saratoga Springs at speeds topping 60 mph, narrowly missing pedestrians, crashing into cars and injuring three, city police said.

The police pursuit, during which an officer backed off to minimize the danger, weaved through parking lots and blew through traffic signals. It ended only after the driver with a history of DWI convictions crashed into a city police car and other vehicles on a narrow side street, police said.

Aaron J. Elliott, 25, of Lakeside Way, Johnsonville, is facing more than a dozen charges, including felony driving while intoxicated and first-degree reckless endangerment, unlawful fleeing from a police officer in a motor vehicle, reckless driving, speeding and refusing a pre-screen test, as well as numerous other violations. According to city police, Elliott has prior DWI convictions in the past 10 years. He is being held on $20,000 cash bail or $40,000 bond after appearing Tuesday morning in City Court.

"The investigation isn't over yet," Catone said. "Down the road, there could be further charges."

According to police, at 1:04 a.m. an officer saw Elliott make a left turn from the right lane of Lake Avenue onto Broadway, the trunk of his Oldsmobile Alero open. Officer Mark Leffler tried to stop Elliott on Ballston Avenue near Hamilton Street, but he took off through the Pizza Hut and McDonald's parking lots.

Leffler told colleagues there were two people walking by the Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's at the time. "How they didn't get run over is beyond me."

Police estimated as many as 17,000 people were downtown for a New Year's celebration including fireworks that didn't end until roughly 12:30. (Crossing guards and private security officers were brought in to assist with crowd control and free up police.) "There were still a lot of people out, a lot of pedestrians, a lot of traffic," Catone said.

After leaving the parking lots, Elliott looped around the block, Catone said, hitting a vehicle pulling into Pizza Hut. Elliott continued onto South Broadway, took a right and headed up Circular Street — where he ran a stop sign at Whitney Place and red lights at the intersections of Union Avenue, Spring Street and Catherine Street. Officers the backed off pursuit because of safety concerns, but were still tracking Elliott, police said.

"Guys made some good decisions," Catone said.

Elliott's flight ended on Circular Street at the intersection of Lake Avenue, when he came upon two vehicles in front of him and a police car driven by Officer Pat O'Leary approaching in the other direction. Elliott slammed his car into the first vehicle, which collided with the second and then drove into the police car, striking the driver's side in front of the door and snapping its axle.

One of the injured was transported to Saratoga Hospital with minor injuries. Another motorist and O'Leary were treated at the scene. Elliott, uninjured, was arrested at the crash site.